File:Heat stress in US may double by end of century.jpg

Heat stress in the U.S.

Areas with increasing populations will likely experience even higher increases in heat stress

20 May 2021

• https://news.agu.org/press-release/heat-stress-in-u-s-may-double-by-the-end-of-the-century/

WASHINGTON— Periods of extremely high heat are projected to double across the lower 48 states by 2100 if the world continues to emit high levels of greenhouse gases, according to a new study in Earth’s Future, AGU’s journal for interdisciplinary research on the past, present and future of our planet and its inhabitants.

This heat stress will be felt strongest in areas with growing populations. Regions like the Pacific Northwest, Central California and the Great Lakes region could experience as much as a threefold increase compared to the past 40 years. Heat stress occurs when both the temperature and relative humidity gets high enough that the human body can’t get rid of the excess heat, leading to problems like strokes, heat cramps and other symptoms....

“Our study provides a more comprehensive assessment of the impacts of climate change on heat stress in the U.S. by integrating multiple variables from state-of-the-art climate and population projections,” said Michael Mann, another co-author of the study and a researcher at the Pennsylvania State University. “Climate change could lead to massive human mortality in the decades ahead. Tens of millions of lives, it is estimated, might be lost due to climate change impacts by later this century. One of the principal contributors is heat stress.”

~